The Riddle (2007)
A journalist investigates a series of murders that follows the discovery of an unpublished novel by Charles Dickens in the cellar of an old Thames pub.
Watch Trailer
Cast
Reviews
Simply Perfect
A Disappointing Continuation
A different way of telling a story
A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.
The worst part of this is the story, which rapidly deteriorates from a partly promising premise to an abysmal end. Rather than making the main plot more interesting, the subplot involving Charles Dickens renders the narrative nonsensical. I think I know why those famous actors and actresses were involved: they are hacks who could sleepwalk through their parts and have been involved in enough good films that the occasional putrid offering doesn't matter. There could have been a good film in this, involving modern and Dickensian London, but that would involve an intelligent writer, which this script utterly lacked. The real "riddle" is why such a uninspired and uninspiring story idea ever was made into a film...
This film was pure trash. Not the worse film ever. If it were to be broken down, the acting was good enough to get the job done but the script was SO out there and so stupid that one was left thinking, "Where did my life go?" Even Vanessa Redgrave~ whom I love (and is the reason I watched this) was wasted. Utterly wasted. She didn't even leave an impression. The directing was so distant that non of the characters left me much of anything, but to see Redgrave leave nothing. Her part was nothing. She was good as a mean boss but that was it. Do depth and she's given depth to small roles~ see Venus and Atonement. I would not waste my time and was upset to have spent the $5 on this movie...I wanted it back. No returns. Skip the film. It'll only bring you grief...and boredom.
Okay, I'm getting older and my hearing is not as sharp as it was, but that aside, I found the lead actors diction, tone, accent and overall sound reproduction frustrating. I barely understood half of what Jones said when he was on screen. What dialogue I did get was too predictable, rather like the entire plot line and scenes. This film could have been reduced to less than 90 minutes (it might have been more tolerable).Was this supposed to have been a love story? The woman's lead was so out of touch with reality that she seemed to be rather accidental to the entire film. The ending was absurd and wholly unworthy of Derek Jocobi. Charles Dickens would have been so upset!
You know Vinnie Jones from playing tough and silent characters that suddenly speak wisdom. While I applaud the attempt to act outside that label, I don't think he did very well in this film. Him and lovely Julie Cox had no chemistry at all. Or maybe I'm just jealous :) Anyway, the script is interesting enough, with a journalist trying to uncover a mystery regarding the death of one of his friends, while in parallel we get a short story/confession written by Dickens himself. Vinnie works so hard not to show up as tough that he gets beaten a few times, forgets dates, gets dumped, is hopelessly goofy and even makes a deal with the obnoxious character.I will give the start of the movie a decent 7, the rest of the film falling slowly, but surely towards a 6, while the ending was completely bonkers: 5. Result: under 6.5 = 6. And I feel bad about it, because this is not a stupid movie. It just tried to be more than the team could do. Sorry.